Be ahead of the game Read our guides to Employee Ownership & Share Schemes

Guides

Detailed Guides to Employee Ownership and Share Schemes

Click on the arrows below to find links to our detailed guide pages and more information

Employee ownership and business recovery
10 key Employee Ownership benefits
  1. More engaged and committed employees
  2. Building a clear shared purpose and collaborative way of working
  3. Ownership succession which preserves your business and its culture
  4. A stronger performing business
  5. A committment to the longer term
  6. Leadership succession can be implemented over time
  7. Retiring owners can be paid market value for their shares
  8. Tax reliefs for retiring owners and employees alike
  9. Enhanced returns for investors
  10. Employee ownership can be implemented at a pace which matches that of any retiring owners.
Employee Ownership as a succession planning solution

Employee ownership may be one of the greatest business succession solutions you’ve never heard of.

Establishing an employee ownership trust to buy out retiring owners is increasingly popular.

Companies in the news recently for transitioning to employee ownership include

  • Richer Sounds
  • Riverford Organics
  • Aardman Animations (the makers of Wallace and Gromit)

Not only does it often solve the kinds of succession problem that many owners face, it creates a strong platform for continued success and growth through having engaged and motivated new owners and brings statutory tax reliefs for both retiring owners and employees.

 To read more click here

What kind of Employee Ownership would work best for your company?

Through a detailed investigation of your business and objectives, we will help you make the best decision.

There are three main forms of employee ownership:

  • Individual share ownership
  • A combination of trust and individual ownership (hybrid)
  • Trust ownership

Generally, trust ownership will be simpler both to set up and run. But this does not make it the automatic best choice for all companies

Which of these will be the best solution will depend on your company and its employees. To help you decide click here for more information

Guide to becoming an Employee-Owned Company

Employee ownership is reported to be the fastest growing form of business ownership in the UK.

An increasing number of business owners planning retirement are arranging for their employees to take over the ownership and entrepreneurs creating new businesses are seeing the advantages that employee ownership can bring for business growth.

Whilst large businesses such as John Lewis are high profile examples of successful employee-owned companies, there is a large and growing number of smaller companies – in diverse sectors – that are also employee-owned.

To read a detailed guide to becoming an employee owned company click here

What is an Employee Benefit Trust (EBT)?

A trust under which property (very often shares in the company which the employees work for, but sometimes also cash) is held on their behalf.  More information can be found here  Employee Benefit Trust (EBT)

Employee-Owned companies in the UK

If you are unsure whether employee ownership is right for your company look at this list of employee-owned companies for examples from many and varying business sectors.

The Employee Ownership Manual

Click here for more information and to buy The Employee Ownership Manual

Hybrid Employee Ownership
Individual Share Ownership
Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI)
Company Share Option Plan (CSOP)
Growth Shares

A guide to Growth Shares

Long Term Incentive Plan (LTIP) & Unapproved Arrangements
Save As You Earn (SAYE)
Share Incentive Plan (SIP)
Restricted Shares

A guide to Restricted Shares

Joint Share Ownership Plans (JSOPS's)
Share Purchase (including nil or partly-paid shares)

A guide to Share Purchase

ESOP - Employee Stock Ownership Plan

A guide to ESOP

ESPP - Employee Stock Purchase Plan

A guide to ESPP 

Glossary

A Glossary for terms used can be found here

Postlethwaite are very commercial and practical. Working with them is an excellent experience.

Chambers Directory 2020
Robert Postlethwaite

To explore how employee ownership or an employee share scheme could work for your company, call me on 020 3818 9420.

ROBERT POSTLETHWAITE, MANAGING DIRECTOR